The Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag, German acronym for ''Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz'') is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

water

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

and an internationally networked institution. As part of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain, it is an institution of the

Federal Department of Home Affairs The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA, , french: Département fédéral de l'intérieur, links=no, , rm, ) is a department of the federal administration of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss ministry of the interior. As of 2012, it is ...

of the

Swiss Confederation ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The Eawag is based in

Dübendorf Dübendorf is a municipality in the district of Uster in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population of about 30,000 (2021). It is the fourth largest city in the canton, after Zürich, Winter ...

near Zurich and

Kastanienbaum Horw (; Swiss German: ''Horb'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lucerne (district), Lucerne in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Lucerne (canton), Lucerne in Switzerland. History Horw is first mentioned in ...

near

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

. After its foundation in 1936 it concentrated on

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...

and

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

supplies. From these beginnings it has expanded into a multidisciplinary research institute with a focus on three primary research areas: water as a foundation of health and well-being, water as an essential factor in the functioning of our ecological systems, and strategies for the mitigation of water use conflicts. Nowadays, with a staff of over 500 employees, Eawag is actively engaged in research, teaching and consulting in all areas pertaining to water. Eawag's overall aim is to ensure the sustainable use of water resources and infrastructure and to harmonize the ecological, economic and social interests associated with bodies of water. In doing so, the Eawag plays an important role in bridging research and practice.

History

The Eawag was founded in 1936 as an advisory board of the

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

for wastewater treatment and drinking water supplies. Less than ten years later this information center officially becomes the ''Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology'' (or EAWAG as per its German

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

) whose mission is increasingly devoted to developing integrated approaches to water management and protection: besides being key to implementing the first water management regulation in 1957, the institute later demonstrated that the growth of green algae that plagued Swiss lakes at the time was mostly due to the release of

detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are more ...

-derived

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

s. These were finally banned in 1985. The institute grew through the 1960s and 1970s: first came the Kastanienbaum hydrobiological research centre, followed in 1968 by

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...

's recently created International Reference Centre for Waste Disposal, out of which the current Department for Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) emerged. In 1970 Eawag, until then an institute within

becomes an affiliated institute within the ETH system, moving a few months later in their new premises in Dübendorf. In 1993, a new law sets it as an independent water research institute within the ETH domain. In 2004 the Fishing Information Centre FIBER, in 2008 the Water Agenda 21 and the Ecotox Centre, and in 2010 the centres of excellence CEEB and CCDW were founded. In 2007 Eawag moved to the Forum Chriesbach, itself a winner of several environmental awards.

Activities

Research

As a water research institute Eawag has three major focus areas: * Water for human welfare Safe drinking water supply and wastewater disposal are essential to maintain human welfare. Eawag research projects aim to develop optimum approaches and strategies to meet future threats caused by increasing

contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination W ...

population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. * Water for ecosystem function The increasing pressure of civilisation has a negative influence on the water environment and ecosystems. Developing strategies and measures to both strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s. Maintaining a sustainable provision of

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Th ...

is another focus of Eawag research. * Strategies for trade-offs and competing demands Water use conflicts arise when direct human needs for water and the prevention of negative impacts on ecosystems have to be accommodated at the same time. Eawag research projects develop integrated approaches and put specific emphasis on strategies to meet energy concerns in the context of

trade-off A trade-off (or tradeoff) is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and anot ...

s and competing demands. Eawag Kastanienbaum

The Eawag has twelve research departments, where research is conducted by

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

and

social scientists Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s. This combination permits a wide range of water research. These departments are: * Aquatic Ecology (ECO) - investigates life in water and encompasses various disciplines within

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...

. * Environmental Chemistry (UCHEM) - researches the effect of

contaminants Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc. Types of contamination Wi ...

in waters and their reduction to improve

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

. * Environmental Microbiology (UMIK) - deals with

microbial life A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

and activities in

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...

and

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

, in drinking water and in technical systems such as wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment plants. * Environmental Social Sciences (ESS) - investigates environment-related societal processes from the background of several social science disciplines. * Environmental Toxicology (UTOX) - aims to recognize and understand the effects of chemicals on the aquatic environment. * Fish Ecology and Evolution (FISHEC) - investigates the life,

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of aquatic organisms, most especially

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

. * Process Engineering (ENG) - deals with current and future problems of wastewater and drinking water treatment, as well as the protection of

water resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

and resource recycling. * Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (SANDEC) - by enhancing local competencies, Sandec contributes to improvements in water supply and wastewater management in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. * Surface Waters Research and Management (SURF) - researches and manages aquatic system processes. * System Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling (SIAM) - develops

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

and techniques in order to understand and predict processes which affect water and other natural resources. * Urban Water Management (SWW) - strives to develop sustainable concepts for water and

nutrient cycle A nutrient cycle (or ecological recycling) is the movement and exchange of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of matter. Energy flow is a unidirectional and noncyclic pathway, whereas the movement of mineral nutrients is cycli ...

s in

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s. * Water Resource and Drinking Water - (W+T) - researches physical and chemical processes in bodies of water with the aim of ensuring the long-term quantity and quality of drinking water. Together with external partners and various Eawag departments, the Eawag directs and participates in

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

and trans-disciplinary projects in order to combine pure research with practical problem-solving.

Teaching

The Eawag supports universities in educating undergraduate and doctoral candidates in the natural, engineering and social sciences. Numerous master’s students and doctoral candidates from within the country and from abroad are supervised and guided in projects pertaining to water research every year. In addition, approximately 26 apprentices are trained in laboratory, commercial or IT-related areas. Furthermore, the Eawag offers specialists in water resources management, administration and science regular courses in further education (PEAK – practice oriented Eawag courses). The courses are based on current research work and experience and help to promote communication exchanges of knowledge and experience between research and practice. In the area of further education, six research scholarships are granted to undergraduate and doctoral candidates from developing countries each year within the framework of the Partnership Program for Developing Countries (EPP).

Consulting

The Eawag carries out various advisory mandates both inland and abroad including, for example, for the Swiss Confederation,

Cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, t ...

and

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

. Eawag specialists sit as experts in numerous national and international boards and committees. The Eawag aquatic research institute is, moreover, home to various specialist advisory centres: * The Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology Eawag – EPFL, serves as a knowledge hub and discussion platform for research and development, consulting and education in the field of applied

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

. * The Fisheries Advisory Office (FIBER), a centre for information and further education for recreational and professional fishermen, is jointly run by Eawag, the

Federal Office for the Environment The Federal Office for the Environment (german: Bundesamt für Umwelt; french: Office fédéral de l'environnement; it, Ufficio federale dell'ambiente) is the Swiss environmental agency, a division of the Federal Department of Environment, ...

and the Swiss Fishing Association. * Water-Agenda 21, an information platform and forum to support the development of strategies for water resource management. *

SODIS Solar water disinfection, in short SODIS, is a type of portable water purification that uses solar energy to make biologically-contaminated (e.g. bacteria, viruses, protozoa and worms) water safe to drink. Water contaminated with non-biological ag ...

(Solar Water Disinfection), a project aimed at securing access to clean drinking water in developing countries. The method is a simple process for disinfecting drinking water which uses

sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when t ...

to kill off pathogenic agents such as

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

es,

parasites Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

and

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. * The Micropollutants Process Engineering Platform is a project run jointly by the Swiss Water Association, Swiss Federal Office of the Environment and Eawag. The platform was set up in 2012 and has established itself as a central, independent advisory unit for technical issues on the elimination of

trace element __NOTOC__ A trace element, also called minor element, is a chemical element whose concentration (or other measure of amount) is very low (a "trace amount"). They are classified into two groups: essential and non-essential. Essential trace elements ...

s in wastewater treatment plants. * The Platform for Water Quality was co-founded 2015 by the Swiss Water Association, Eawag and the Federal Office for the Environment: it is aimed at water quality assessment in surface waters, with a particular emphasis on micropollutants.

Awards

Eawag researchers have received national and international awards for their achievements. The most important awards include: * 2016: Peter Kilham Memorial Award, Ole Seehausen * 2016: Energy Globe National Award Morocco, Bouziane Outiti * 2015: Swiss Academies Award for Transdisciplinary Research, Sabine Hoffmann * 2015: Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award, Janet Hering * 2015: Harvey M. Rosen Memorial Award, Elisabeth Salhi, Urs von Gunten ''et al.'' * 2015: Theodosius-Dobzhansky Prize, Catherine Wagner * 2014: IWA Project Innovation Award (Global), Tove Larsen ''et al.'' * 2014: IWA Project Innovation Award (Europe & West Asia), Tove Larsen * 2012: Special Recognition Award for outstanding design at the 'Re-invent the Toilet' competition sponsored by the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...

, Tove Larsen ''et al.'' * 2012: J.E. Brandenberger Prize, Martin Wegelin * 2011: IWA Development Solutions Award, Sandec * 2010: Muelheim Water Award, Thomas Egli * 2009: Vietnamese Medal of Honour for outstanding achievements in teaching and professional training in Vietnam for Michael Berg,

Walter Giger Walter Giger (born September 6, 1943 in Zürich) is a Swiss chemist. He had been working at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), where he was the head of the division ''Chemische Problemstoffe''. He has been a pro ...

, Antoine Morel and Roland Schertenleib * 2008:

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

Award for Best Teaching, Willi Gujer * 2008: Transdisciplinarity Award for the Novaquatis project for Tove Larsen and Judit Lienert * 2007: Watt d’Or for the energy efficiency of the Eawag building ‘Forum Chriesbach’ * 2006: Muehlheim Water Award, Marc Böhler * 2004: Energy Globe Award for

* 1999:

Stockholm Water Prize Presented annually since 1991, the Stockholm Water Prize is an award that recognizes outstanding achievements in water related activities. Over the past three decades, Stockholm Water Prize Laureates have come from across the world and represente ...

Werner Stumm Werner Stumm (1924 – 14 April 1999) was a Swiss chemist. After earning his doctorate in inorganic chemistry at the University of Zürich in 1952 he moved to the U.S. where he was active as a professor at Harvard University until 1969. From 197 ...

* 1990:

Marcel Benoist Prize The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is pl ...

, Bruno Messerli, Werner Stumm and

Hans Oeschger Hans Oeschger (2 April 1927, Ottenbach, Switzerland, Ottenbach – 25 December 1998, Bern) was a Swiss climatologist. He founded the Division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern in 1963 and was ...

The Otto Jaag Water Protection Prize was set up in 1980 in order to honor dissertations and master’s theses at the ETH Zurich in the area of water protection and hydrology. Numerous young Eawag researchers have been recipients of this award since then.

Notes and references

External links

*
Forum Chriesbach

Wave 21

Ecotox Centre
{{authority control ETH Domain Laboratories in Switzerland Education in Zürich Research institutes in Zürich fr:Domaine des Écoles polytechniques fédérales#Institut fédéral pour l'aménagement, l'épuration et la protection des eaux (EAWAG)